Computerized Tomography has grown in sophistication along with the computers or central processing units (CPU's) that made such tomography possible. In MRI systems, even today's sophisticated CPU's are taxed into operating at the limits of their capacity. The control commands are often changed during the test (scans for the imaging of a patient) in addition to being changed prior to individual scans. Also, there are many more variables in MRI systems than in prior modalities. For example, among the factors varied from test to test and during a test are: the various gradients, the Rf signal amplitude, timing duration, frequency and shape. The control signals and patterns thus have to command analog and/or on-off type operators as well as meticulously shape wave forms for the Rf signal.
The MRI system tests acquire data giving information on T1, T2 and T*2 in addition to acquiring the actual FID signals. The computers are used to control the acquisition of the data and to process the acquired data to form the images. The variations in the control commands for the processing and the acquisition of data in the past have generally been under the direct control of the CPU. The many operations which must be performed by CPU's in MRI systems require expensive large computers or combinations of computers to accomplish the operations in a time efficient manner. Hence those skilled in the art have for many years been seeking ways and means to more effectively control MRI systems from a cost, time and versatility stand point.